2. Juli 2026, von AAI Webmaster

We kindly invite you to this online lecture in English language on Friday, March 13th, 2026, at 14:00–16:00 h (CET/MEZ).

Topic:

    "HET BUN DAI BUN (1994–2005): Luang Prabang/Laos. A documentary photography project situated in the field of tension between the Buddhist Sangha and politics"

Speaker:
    Hans Georg Berger

Affiliation:
    Buddhist Archive of Photography, Luang Prabang

Date/Time:
    July 2nd, 2026 (Thursday), 14:00 – 16:00 (CET/MEZ)

Language:
    English

Venue:
    Hybrid, Zoom and AAI Room 232

Zoom Link:
    https://uni-hamburg.zoom.us/j/64563521222?pwd=OEdSbENCOUV2Ynl5ZUdnNG5mM1pwQT09

Zoom Meeting-ID:
   645 6352 1222

Zoom Passcode:
    hgtlecture

About this lecture:
From 1994 to 2006, Hans Georg Berger carried out his community work on ceremonies, rituals, meditations and everyday lives in Buddhist monasteries of Luang Prabang, Laos. As the first Western artist permitted to work with the Theravada community since the Pathet Lao revolution of 1975, he became part of the revival of ancient monastic rituals and meditation practices. In a concentrated effort of exchanges on contents, forms and meanings, about 14,000 analog black-and-white photographs were produced. While work concentrated on the effort of exchanges on religious contents, it developed against the background of a reassessment of relations between the Buddhist Sangha and the Government of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and finally became an expression of the ongoing process of political reconciliation. In 2000 Berger’s Buddhist photographs from Luang Prabang were shown in the National Pavilion of Laos at the Hannover World Expo.

Brief profile:
Hans Georg Berger (Trier, 1951) is a conceptual artist who works with photography, writing and memory. He has developed a methodology for the documentation of ritual and learning in religious contexts, conceived as a communicative process in which traditional roles between the photographer and its subjects are partly reversed (”Community Involvement“). He has authored the books Het Bun Dai Bun – Sacred ceremonies of Laos, London: Westzone, 2000 (published in German as: Het Bun Dai Bun – Luang Prabang, Laos. Rituale einer glücklichen Stadt, München: Knesebeck, 2000) and, with Francesco Paolo Campione, Discipline of senses. Photographs 1972–2020 (Milan and London: Skira/Thames and Hudson, 2023).

We would like to thank the Hamburg Society for Thai Studies and the Numata Center for Buddhist Studies for the cooperation. 

You can also find all this information on our Instagram account and on our flyer.